Press Releases, 16/05/2014 | Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Development Ministers discuss South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the global development goals

Press telease 117/2014
16 May 2014

Minister for International Development Pekka Haavisto will attend the meeting of EU Ministers for Development to take place in Brussels on 19 May.

The main topics of the Ministers’ discussions are the post-2015 global development goals, the role of the private sector in development, as well as the implementation of the Agenda for Change, the EU development policy revised in 2012 , especially in the light of programming the EU’s development cooperation for 2014–2020. In addition, Commissioner Andris Piebalgs will present the EU’s plans on how to better promote human rights in development cooperation.

The agenda for the working lunch includes the situation in South Sudan and the Central African Republic as well as the EU’s activities in these countries. Minister Haavisto will recount the experiences of his trip to South Sudan, also in his capacity as the co-chair of the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (IDPS).

With regard to the UN’s post-2015 development goals, Finland stresses a stronger and more active role for the EU. The EU’s Common positions should be defined with more precision as soon as possible. Finland also considers it important that the EU discuss development goals especially with those countries whose views diverge from those of the EU.

After the ministerial meeting, Haavisto will speak at a seminar focusing on Africa’s conflicts and fragile states, organized by Finland and the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM).